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Friday, March 29, 2013

One of my favorite forums is Lead Adventure, which while somewhat specialized in Pulp/Back of Beyond/Swashbuckling, has a level of project excellence amongst its membership which is unequaled, and for that reason alone is worth visiting. One of the delightful aspects of the site, is that it runs a contest called "Lead Painter League" where the weekly regiment/team/squad entries of painters complete against one another for 10 rounds, and points are accrued to generate an overall winner (paint off in event of a score tie). Rules for Season Seven have just been released here. (Season 6 entries are here, for reference)

This year's round bonus points are for a Command Team (round one), Civil War (historical, round 5), and Sci Fi (round 10).

Here are some thoughts on how to win, or at least do well in the competition by Captain Blood, multiple winner of the LPL and clearly excellent painter (or is he just trying to throw readers off the game?).

While painting 50+ figures during the duration of the League would be pretty heroic for me (in stark comparison to my anemic output these last few years), it would also decrease the ol'lead/plastic pile a bit... something to ponder.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

There has been some discussion lately on Ammobunker about the nature of "civilians" in the 40k universe, inspired by Exokan's WIP civilian figures. Some argued that there are no civilians in the traditional sense in the far off year of 40,000, and that all are subsumed into guilds and factories to the extent that all form a part of the military machine. Others point to the irrationality of having a workforce comprised of workers dedicated to mindless task repetition, and how this does not allow for population growth or change, even with the constraints of a universe at constant total war.

In short, is a hive populated by generational guilds of skull-faced-lion-maned-mono-task-drill-armed-stiletto-heeled maniacs, or is it populated by sober serfs who work very hard for little reward, but are otherwise fairly familiar members of humanity?

Here is a quote from Thistle, who has an official and public hand in the look and development of 40k: ...they cannot be considered civilians - the very term itself is something i would not weave into the 40k canon a bit like money or latin they just do not exist in the far flung future... [sic] Civilians as we conceive of it do not exist, just like money [!] seems a bit much for me.

Here is an opposing quote from MarcoSkoll: And, I feel that even as dsytopian as the setting might be, the fact it has sustained itself for the last ten thousand years must mean that huge swathes of its population remain capable of reproduction and parenting. As delightfully morbid as a butcher with huge hydraulic cleaver for his arm might be, grafting the entire labour force to their tools does mean they're going to find themselves somewhat limited in their ability to raise children. Seems more on the money, where the strange and colorful aspects of the universe are in fact strange and colorful because the rest of the universe is more mundane, and rational.
Rationality in the blurb-official 40k has always been lacking, as when it is mentioned that the Adeptus Mechanicus and similar only can run and produce machines with the appropriate blessings for the machine spirit, sacred oils, and so on, while at the same time we have hive worlds with populations in the billions, toiling in factories uncountable, which would mean that either every factory has thousands of Tech Priests, and production is staggeringly inefficient, or that in fact machine worship is just a surface gloss, and that workers toiling at machine tools uncounted produce weapons and goods without necessitating any intervention by holy water sprinklers. Priests of Mars has characters impressed into service on the Techno-Ark as plasma engine serfs, slaving away at cleaning plasma chambers, even unto death, but even those were impressed into service from a world where they worked for wages at normal (if difficult) jobs.

Irrational repetition of tasks also produces non-rational actors, which means that you can not create an effective population of officers, engineers, supervisors, and (importantly) Inquisitors from it. As these are demonstrably a part of the 40k universe, they must therefore be produced by rational means from rational people, so there must exist at least a portion of the population which is not given over to unthinking total military production.

Another way to look at this question is total number of military effectives of a population. We could look at the historical example of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, which had a population of approximately 140 million, and 34 million under arms during that period. (~24%). If one reduces that number slightly to account for the fact that such a high number under arms and so many killed during the war caused a post war population crash, and that the Western Allies produced some of the material used by the Soviet war machine, you could say that 20% of a population under arms is close to a sustainable maximum. So indeed, there must be civilians in the other 80%, as they could not all be children.

Recent works by Dan Abnett in particular, and the Black Library novelists in general, paint a universe where war is constant, but not ever present, as there are sectors where life is, for want of a better word, normal, and there are battle lines, well away from the day to day life of most of the population. Indeed, Ravnor, Eisenhorn, and Gaunt confront the difficulties of the imperial bureaucracy, guilds, and, but still see civilians and humanity as separate from the war machine, and civilians as separate from their jobs.

So just how rational is that far off year where there is only war? I suggest to you that the rationality of that distant time is alive and well, despite and perhaps because of the irrational times in which humanity lives. While irrational elements persist, they are a coloration on the drab grey workaday world of the rest of humanity. Our aforementioned augmented guild worker is part of the reality of the world, but there are masses of rational (but constrained) civilians to support them in their work, by undertaking the less specialized and standard tasks of existence.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

I just finished reading the relatively new book Priests of Mars by Graham McNeill. Published July of 2012, This book is about an explorator fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is going to go beyond the "Halo Scar" in search of similar fleet that was lost long ago. The object of the original fleet was to find various artifacts of the Golden Age of humanity, which supposedly have the power to terraform dead worlds, drain stars for power, and so on. Various parties are connected to this search, such as a Cadian regiment, Titans, Black Templars, and a Rogue Trader. They are opposed in their quest by a shipful of Eldar, and various elements from within the Mechanicus itself.

The really interesting part of this book for me was the variety of Tech Priests and Magos on parade. You have "brain in many separate jars" guy, and "body given over to combat" guy, and a few recognizably female members too, which is in and of itself interesting as well. This sort of description is useful beyond the confines of this story for those of you interested in making Adeptus Mechanicus armies, or INQ28 skirmish bands. It also reminds you how being press ganged as a serf on a ship would not be the life of adventure that you might expect.

Unfortunately, just as the action is really getting started, the book ends, so one has to wait for the sequel to get anywhere in this story. (the story ends with a few cliff hanger elements as well) Fortunately for me, I got this book from the local library, so did not have to pay $25 for what is ultimately only part of a story. Recommend that you wait for the inevitable omnibus edition, unless you need to read about the various morphology of the Tech Priests.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Here is a d200 table of Equipment as part of the d1000 inquisitor attributes project. Go back and read that post if you want to know what this is about.

I tried to think of mostly smaller items that an Inquisitor would have in his/her pocket, on a belt hook, or similar, rather than larger items. Larger items, like heavier weapons, are carried by subordinates, that is part of their job. (aside from acting as meat shields when needed).

Roll

Equipment

1

Abacus

2

Adamantium Manacles

3

Adhesive tape

4

Anywhere ink pen

5

Aqua breather

6

Astartes Power Armor
finger

7

Auspex

8

Baklava

9

Bacon Butty

10

bag of ball bearings

11

Bag of Jelly babies

12

Bag of sweets (d10)

13

Balance scales

14

Bang putty and
igniter

15

Baton (d4
wood/brass/lead/Ceramite)

16

Binders, plastic

17

Binoculars, electro

18

Binoculars, pocket

19

Bio Spoor collection
kit

20

Blessed machine
unguents

21

Blessed purity seals

22

Blessed water, vial

23

Book of vile things
(d3 chaos/pornographic/anti-religious)

24

bottle of hot sauce

25

Bottle of rotgut in
paper bag

26

Brass chased knuckles

27

caltrops (d6)

28

Candles, light (d6)

29

Candles, religious
(d12)

30

Cane, fancy

31

Canine whistle

32

Canister of snuff

33

Chalk

34

Change of clothes

35

Collapsing
quarterstaff

36

Colostomy bag

37

Combat drugs (d2
uses)

38

Concentrated ration
pills (d6 meal equivalents)

39

Conversion Field
Generator, Rosarius (d6 charges)

40

Credit stick (d1000
Thrones)

41

Curiously carved horn

42

Data key

43

Data slate

44

Day old news printout

45

Deck of cards

46

Deck of Emperor's
Tarot

47

Decoder ring

48

Dehydrated water
flask

49

Dialect phrase book

50

Dice, obscure

51

Dice, standard

52

Disguise kit

53

Displacer field
generator, amulet (d3 charges)

54

Doll, child's

55

Dust mask

56

Earplugs

57

Elbow length
impermeable gloves

58

Electro Lantern (d100
hours)

59

Emperor's Tears, vial

60

Encrypter/Decrypter,
electronic

61

Enhanced
interrogation tool kit

62

Field shave kit

63

Fingernail paint

64

Fire starter

65

First aid kit

66

fishing hooks and
line

67

Flare (d6x10 minute
duration)

68

Flute

69

folding pocket fan,
lacquered

70

Folding razor blade

71

Gag

72

Gas mask

73

Glass cutter

74

Gloves, fancy

75

Grav Chute, One use

76

Hand cogitator

77

Hand lux (d20 hours)

78

Hand puppet

79

Hand bell, middle C

80

Handcuffs

81

Handful of teeth

82

Headband mounted lux
(d10 hours)

83

Hearing Enhancing
earplugs

84

High strength cord,
20m

85

Holo field generator,
eldar (d20 charges)

86

Hunting Horn

87

Ident card(s) (d6)

88

Ink Cartridge quill
and paper

89

Knockout Gas Grenades
(d3)

90

Las pointer, green

91

Leash (animal/psyker)

92

Letter Seal and
sealing wax

93

Lighter

94

Lo sticks (d20
remaining)

95

Local Patrolman's
Badge (not yours)

96

Lock pick set

97

Lock pick, automatic

98

Lock pick, electronic

99

Loud Hailer

100

Lucky Lagomorf's foot

101

Machine spirit
pleasing incense

102

Magnifying ocular
array

103

Makeup kit

104

Man grabber

105

Maps, Local
continental

106

Maps, local street

107

Measuring tape

108

Mechanical Hand
Calculator

109

Microbead
transmitter/receiver

110

Monomolecular wire

111

Mono-scope

112

Moving pictogram
maker

113

Multi fitting pocket
power unit (d6 charges)

114

Music player, pocket

115

Noise maker

116

Noospheric identifier

117

Obscura (d4 preloaded
pipes)

118

Orbital Range Pocket
vox

119

Obscuring hood

120

Oxygen mask

121

Pad of Ether

122

Pain killer pills
(d50)

123

Pendant electro lux
(d20 hours)

124

Perfume, vial

125

Pict (d6
family/friend/enemy/yourself/target/canine)

126

Pictogram maker,
pocket

127

Pocket Chron,
multimode

128

Pocket electro
stunner (d6 uses)

129

Pocket Emperor
Triptych

130

Pocket endoscope

131

Pocket flask (d4
Amsec/rotgut/water/Caff)

132

pocket heater

133

Pocket knife

134

Pocket multi tool

135

Pocket notebook

136

Pocket Reference
Guide

137

Pocket saint fetish

138

Police whistle

139

Prayer book, pocket

140

Prophylactics (d10)

141

Psyker limiter

142

Psyk-out grenade

143

Purse full of small
change (d100 Thrones worth)

144

Purse full of small
change, local currency

145

Rad grenade

146

Rat, Live

147

Ration pack (d4
meals)

148

Refractor Field
Generator, Gorget (d12 charges)

149

Regency board and
pieces

150

Rope (d3 plant
fiber/synthetic fiber/metal)

151

Rosette (not yours)

152

Saint's bones (real)

153

Screw driver set

154

Servo Skull
Controller

155

Servo Skull,
assistant

156

Servo Skull, defender

157

Servo Skull, hunter

158

Servo Skull, scout

159

Sewing kit

160

Shock Collar

161

Shock Pole (d6
charges)

162

Signet Ring (d3
yours/Overlords/Not yours)

163

Skeleton Key set

164

Sketch book

165

Skinning knife

166

Small rubber ball,
red

167

Smoke bombs (d6)

168

Smoked Glass lenses

169

Sonic Spanner

170

Splicer's kit

171

Stealth Field
Generator, Tau

172

Stim Injector (d4
uses)

173

Stun grenades (d3)

174

Tabac pouch (d6 pipes
full)

175

Teleport beacon

176

Throwing Knife,
pocket (d6)

177

Tin of preserved
Ichthyoid flesh

178

Towel

179

Tourniquet

180

Vial of blood (not
yours)

181

Void scope

182

Vortex Grenade

183

Vox Caller, local

184

Vox Direction Finder

185

Vox Jammer

186

Vox receiver

187

Vox recorder, pocket
(d10 hours capacity)

188

Vox scanner, multi
band

189

Vox scrambler

190

Vox Thief

191

Walking stick

192

Whetstone

193

Whip

194

Windup toy titan

195

Wire Garrote

196

Wire Saw

197

Wire, small gauge,
d100 m

198

Wraithbone Flute

199

Wraithbone signifier

200

Wrist Chron, dual
dial

Anyway, there we have 200 items that an Inquisitor might carry. Let me know what you think.